Presentation V

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Reports & Presentations (revised)

Mar 27

- Climate Change – can it be solved ?

Apr 10

- How can we solve the energy problems? 10%

Apr 17 , 24 - Group Presentations

10%

20%

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The Greenest Country Switzerland is most environsound country, Yale University’s Performance

the world’s mentally according to

The study found

that although tend to be governance

wealthy countries

greener, good counts, too.

Environmental

Index.

Green policies, for instance, pushed relatively poor Colombia ahead of France on the list of 149 countries. The United States ( no surprise here ) scored poorly. Source: Newsweek, Feb 4, 2008

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Thailand’s Natural Habitat French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot wrote in his diary: “The forest abound with vegetables and exquisite fruits. The rivers, the lakes, the ponds teem with fish. A few bamboos suffice to construct a house, while the periodic inundations render the lands wonderfully fertile. Man has but to sow and to plant.” Mouhot concluded that the Siamese were a lucky race “spoiled by the bountiful nature.” The scenes Mouhot witnessed had not altered a great deal by the turn of the last century. There is evidence that as recently as 100 years ago, a herd of wild elephants wandered the Bang Kapi area. Tigers roamed Rayong and Chanthaburi while the great teak forests of the north had lost little.

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A few more decades to 1938, the eve of World War II, there were wild elephants, sambar, banteng and tigers roaming undisturbed in Khorat Plateau forest. Hundreds of birds chirped and sang in the jungle. Today, as Thailand approaches the 21st century, much of this paradise has been lost, the bounty Mouhot described has fallen victim to population growth and economic progress, new technologies and old, destructive practices, legitimate human needs and pure greens. Bang Kapi, with its shopping malls and traffic jams, could hardly support elephants.

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The onetime tiger haunts of the southeast are being turned into rubber plantations, golf courses and industrial estates. The forests as well many been felled.

around Pak Chong, as in the north, have

On the eve of were some 15 about 70 percent under forest

World War II, there millions Thais and of the country was cover.

But the destrucrapidly as and land was agriculture.

tion accelerated polulation expanded cleared for

Farmland increased five times over the past four decades, and the forests have shrunk correspondingly.

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Todays, official estimates of forested land range between 25 and 28 percent. But most environmental organizations believe less than 20 percent of Thailand remains under a viable green canopy.

Destroying Nature In our grandfathers’ time, there seemed to be unlimited water, soil and grassland, and it was naturally assumed that such bounty was free. Nature was grand enough to absorb pollution, forests seemed to have little use other than to provide us with wood for building houses and burning. Now we realize that forests absorb the carbon dioxide we breathe out and replace it with oxygen. If there was not enough plants to do this, the Earth’s atmosphere would become toxic. We take it for granted, and we are close to exceeding the capacity of nature to recycle all the carbon dioxide we produce.

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Seven percent of the people use 80% of the available energy. If everybody used as much energy as the 7%, all resources will be totally depleted. It was found that a typical American consumes energy, water and other natural resources equivalent to the consumption of 140 people in Afghanistan or Ethiopia. The average British uses 11 acres, while the average person in China uses 4 acres. However, there are 5.3 acres of land, for every person in the world. The American uses 24 acres in the year 2000.

Water Resources Each day we drink about 4 to 5 quarts of water in tea, juice, beer and other beverages. The food that we consume each day requires more than 2,000 quarts of water. If there are water shortages, that means food shortages. 90% of all the water we use to produce food in the world come from 2 sources:  rainwater  natural underground water called aquifers In many part of the world, aquifers are being run dry. The annual depletion of aquifers worldwide amounts to at least 160 billion tons of water per year. Because it takes about a thousand tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain, the water taken each year and not replaced could produce 160 million tons of grain-enough to feed about half a billion people .

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Wars for Water? For years, experts have predicted that conflicts will increase over water. As populations grow and development spreads, battles will erupt between water-rich and water-poor nations, particularly in major river basins where the upstream nations control the flow of water to those downstream.

THE WINNERS IN A WARMING WORLD

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Global warming will make those battles worse by decreasing rainfall and increasing evaporation in critical areas. The Nile river shared by Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. Egypt has repeated threatened military action if Kenya, Uganda or Ethiopia diverted the Nile. Iraq mobilized its troops against Syria in 1975 when amascus cut off the tap. However, many areas of the world are in for more, not less, precipitation in the years ahead. The Zambezi River in Mozambique has already flooded its banks twice in the past decade.

Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia also expect more rain. Increase rainfall could diminish tensions between certain states. For the Makong, China controls the river’s headwaters, and has worried the downstream states of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam by planning eight giant dams on the upper river, of which two are completed and two are under construction. Once finished, these dams will provide hydropower and irrigation for Yunnan, one of China’s poorest regions.

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But they will also alter the Mekong, is flow into the lower-basin states, interrupting the feeding and breeding patterns of valuable fish and depriving vital irrigation water to as many as 60 million people. Aaron Wolf of Oregon State University pointed out that Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are taking smart measures to protect themselves, by establishing the Mekong River Commission (MRC), which set common goals for development of the river and studies the potential impact of proposed waterworks, hoping to prevent harming downstream habitats. Environmentalists warn, that such measures will not overcome the impact of climate change. These large scale projects must incorporate small, localized adaptation efforts such as rainfall harvesting (collecting rainwater in rooftop reservoirs for household use).

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Experts take aim at “ paddy gas ” rising in the Asian skies A possible solution to reduce greenhouse gases lies in the rice fields in Asia and Thailand. Methane emissions from flooded rice paddies contribute to global warming as coal-fired power plants, car exhausts and other sources do with CO2. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting in Bangkok concluded that rice production was the main cause of rising methane emissions.

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It’s the bacteria that thrive in flooded paddies that produce methane, by decomposing manure used as fertilizer and other organic matter in the oxygen-free environment. The gas is emitted through the plants or directly into the atmosphere. The molecule of methane is 21 times more potent than CO2, as a heat trapping gas. Although CO2 is the bigger problem, representing 70% of the warming potential in the atmosphere, rising methane now account for 23%, reports the USEPA.

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Methane also emitted naturally from wetlands , and other man-made sources, such as land fills and cattle farming Thailand, the world’s largest rice exporter, shows both the promise and limitations of trying to make the industry greener. Most large mills burn leftover rice husks for power – a more climate friendly source than coal or oil – and are increasingly selling excess power back to the state. The government has told the farmers to periodically drain their fields to reduce methane emissions, but most of them do not want to pay the cost of draining their fields.

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Living with Climate Change Global warming is now a reality. IPCC (Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change) predicts temperatures will rise 4 degree Celsius or more by the end of the century. Prompt action to limit CO2 emission is needed. It is just clear that, whatever we do, temperatures will continue to climb which will tilt the world’s economic and political balance. There will be winners and losers. Fairly or not, the tilt is destined to favor the countries of the rich North, to the detriment of the poorer South.

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Within a few decades, Greenland may again deserve its name.

Russia tundra may turn to fertile prairie. Along the equator, heat and drought may devastaste agriculture.

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The rain forest of the Amazon could be savanna by 2100. The vast Sahara will grow ever larger. But America and other rich nations will be left relatively unscathed, because they are removed from equatorial regions that will be harder hit, and wealthy enough to adapt.

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For developing countries, which lack resources to make the adjustment, will be hardly hit. In some regions, only a modest rise in temperatures will cause farm output to plummet. The melting of the Himalayan glaciers will lead first to more flooding in the plains of India and Bangladesh, then to water shortages. Experts fret about the monsoon, potentially driving hundreds of millions into starvation.

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Rising sea levels will compound the problem. Indonesia has warned that 2,000 of the 18,000 islands could be submerged. Demographers talk of mass migrations as the poorest flee drought and poverty, yet in rich but aging nations facing labor shortages (Italy, Japan).

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แนวเขื่อนไม้ไผ่ดักคลื่นที่ชาวบ้านช่วยกันสร้างขึ้นมา ไม่ต้องใช้งบ กทม.

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Smart businesses are already moving to adapt to the new world. Monsanto, the US seed giant, hopes to offer a drought-resistant strain of cotton by 2015. General Electric is betting its future on energy-efficient appliances. Nuclear power is making a world-wide comeback, in part because it emits no CO2.

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THE BEST & WORST The best and worst scorers on the vulnerability index: 1. Norway 2. Finland 3. Sweden 4. Switzerland 5. Canada

1. Sierra Leone 2. Bangladesh 3. Somalia 4. Mozambique 5. Ethiopia

Source: Columbia University

Go online to get the full list of 100 countries at extra.Newsweek.com

Recent study by Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) ranked nations by how prepared they are to adapt to climate change. It was found that the biggest carbon emitters stand to gain the most, or lose the least, in a warming future. However, both the rich and poor are going to have to invest billions to adaptfor instance, they’ll have to redesign seaside urban areas as sea levels rise – but the costs obviously hit the least wealthy hardest.

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The countries at the top of the list-the one least vulnerable to climate change-are rich economies of the north. The Baltic countries of Sweden, Finland and Norway hold the top three spots • Canada comes in the fifth place, and the United States at the ninth • China is 52nd and India 74th • Japan is no. 6, already has a sophisticated warning system that Issues alerts for storms and dangerous tides.

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The Netherlands (14) has spent centuries adapting to lowlying terrain, and they are looking at how rising sea levels will affect existing dikes and barriers. Conversely, in Israel (25) the problem has always been too little water and its problem is likely worsen. The Israel cabinet is studying the issue, and plans to have a comprehensive water security strategy within 4 years.

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Many of the most vulnerable nations are singled out in IPCC reports for various risks. Part of the Bangladesh can expect more-frequent flash floods, meanwhile, a rise in water-surface temperatures will make cholera epidemics more likely in East African nations, like Mozambique and Somalia. More-advanced nations might be able to drain standing water and clear other disease vectors, or construct flashflood warnings, but the low-development levels of countries like these mean fewer resources are available for battling potential threats.